TIRUPATI: Tirupati MP Dr. M Gurumurthy on Friday lodged a police complaint stating that he received a phone call from a man posing as a staffer at the Chief Minister’s Office, who asked him to select 20 people and transfer Rs 1.25 lakh for each of them to a bank account. The caller said the Union government has sanctioned Rs 5 crore for disbursal under a scheme, the MP said.
Suspecting that it could be a trap, he got the call verified with the CMO and lodged a complaint with Tirupati SP Ch Venkata Appala Naidu.
Gurumurthy said: “A person who identified himself as one Dr. Abhishek called me this morning and said he works at the CMO’s industries wing. He told me that the Union government has sanctioned Rs 5 crore grants through the Khadi & Village Industries commission and the amount was ready for disbursal. The caller said the grants can be distributed to 20 beneficiaries and that each beneficiary will get Rs 25 lakh.”
The imposter further asked the MP to shortlist 20 beneficiaries and send their Aadhaar cards along with a payment of Rs 1.25 lakh for each of them for challan charges.
“Suspecting that something was amiss, I got the call verified with the CMO, which confirmed that there was no one called Abhishek working there. Then I realised that this was a scam call and an attempt to dupe money,” the MP said.